


It's Always Darkest Just Before the Dawn

by Tshilaba



Category: Death Note
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 19:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5303366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tshilaba/pseuds/Tshilaba





	It's Always Darkest Just Before the Dawn

The red head stood in front of the podium. He swallowed hard as he gazed out over the auditorium and remembered everything that had happened over the past week.  
  
Mello, his best friend since they were about three, and his boyfriend for the past two months had committed suicide just the day before. He couldn't take the abuse anymore. He'd gone from one of the most respected students in Wammy's School for the Gifted to the most bullied in just a few days once someone spotted him kissing Matt on the cheek at their lockers.   
  
Linda gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand gently. "Do it for Mello, Matt."  
  
The gamer nodded and cleared his throat. "Now, I assume you're wondering why you've all been called here today," he said into the microphone. He glanced at Roger a moment.  
  
The old man nodded solemnly.  
  
"As you all know, Mihael Keehl commited suicide yesterday afternoon. He was a very dear friend of mine. And yes, he was my boyfriend. But it shouldn't matter. Because he was just the same as any of you sitting here. He had hopes, dreams, a future lying ahead of him. Mello was a Catholic, all of you know this quite well. And yet he fell in love with me. But why does that matter? He wasn't lost in sin; no, Mello was one of the most devout people I know. The problem was everyone else.  
  
We were three when we met. He was just like any other three year old. Rambunctious, a little bit of a trouble maker."  
  
"Still was even come high school," Roger chuckled.  
  
Linda laughed.  
  
"True," Matt conceded. "But aren't we all at times? Don't you see? What was wrong with Mello? Nothing. He was just like any of us. The only difference was that he loved me--"  
  
"Exactly!" someone shouted, interrupting. "And homosexuals will burn in hell for all eternity for their sins. It's in the Bible!"  
  
The red head twitched and then shouted. "What God would damn a heart? What God would drive his children apart?"  
  
"Matt, chill," the brunette said gently, knowing this was a sensitive subject for her friend. "Look," she went on, stepping in front of the gamer. "Don't you understand? A life has been lost due to bullying."  
  
"Why is it if anyone else commits suicide, everyone's depressed," Matt snapped, "but yet should anyone from the LGBT community commit suicide it's 'Oh, well, one less faggot in the world now.' That's WRONG. Don't you get it? Mello's life was just as valuable as any of you here. Worth just as much. And you don't even care. You don't even _care_. And yet, before last week, when you saw him kiss my cheek in the hall, he was your idol. It was like he could do no wrong.   
  
I'll say this now," he continued, taking a deep breath. "I'm proud to be gay."  
  
"And I'm proud to be a lesbian," Linda said, taking her friend's hand. "Resa, come here please."  
  
A small brunette stood up near the back and walked to the stage and up to her girlfriend's side.  
  
Linda smiled and kissed her gently on the lips before intertwining their fingers. "Would you like to say something, hun?"  
  
Resa nodded and Matt handed her the microphone. "As many of you know," she said quietly. "My family is Methodist. But I've loved Linda since the day I met her three years ago. I was 15 and I didn't quite understand what I was feeling, but I'd always been taught to be honest. So I told Linda my feelings. She laughed a bit, and told me she felt the same; then she asked me to go out with her. I told my parents two months later. They didn't like it at first, but they told me it was my life. Then they quoted this verse to me. 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12'. You work out your own life with God, not what someone else tells you."  
  
"But homosexuality is immoral!"  
  
"Show me a verse were it says that point blank, and I'll show you one that disproves it," the red head countered angrily. "Mello knew the Bible inside and out. Trust me, I know. I knew Mello for over 15 years. And I can tell you just about any verse off the top of my head as well.   
  
The concept that homosexuality is immoral is, at best, a weak theory. Why? Because the Bible can be interpreted in just about any way someone chooses. Take one verse to 100 people and ask them to give you the meaning of it, and you'll get 99 different interpretations. Everyone gets from the Bible what they need to know.  
  
A little over two months ago, Mello came to me with a problem. He told me, he had someone that he liked as more than a friend, but he didn't know how to handle his feelings. I asked him why, and he told me 'Because it's wrong.' That was the only explanation he'd give. Now, after knowing him for 15 years, I had a very good feeling that any 'wrong' feelings would more than likely be romantic feelings for a boy.   
  
So, I did what I felt a best friend should. I reminded him of Phillipians 2:12 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.' and then I asked him 'Does it feel wrong to you to feel this way? Not does anyone or anything say it's wrong, but do you feel it is?' He told me no.  
  
I told him he should tell the person he had feelings for. 'It's best to be honest,' I said, 'and at the very least, even if they don't return your feelings, they'll be happy to know how you feel and will stay by you.'   
  
The next thing I knew, he was kissing me. He liked me. Heh." Matt stopped, chuckling a bit at the memory. He shook his head. "It didn't feel wrong for him. And he'd prayed about it many times.  
  
That's my point. You don't choose who you fall in love with. You can't. And it's not about thinking someone's 'hot', either. That's completely different. I've heard straight women comment that Megan Fox is hot. But they're not in love with her.  
  
If you choose anything about falling in love, it's who you allow yourself to be around. Even then, your say in the matter is limited. Because your best friend could be the one you fall in love with."  
  
"That's the best person in the world to fall in love with," Resa commented.  
  
The gamer nodded. "It is. Because they already know you well."  
  
"If you ask me," a snotty girl by the name of Erin said, "You just badgered Roger into letting you talk so you could rant about yourself and your faggot friends."  
  
The entire auditorium grew deathly silent.  
  
"...Excuse me?" Matt said finally, his voice quiet.  
  
"You heard me."  
  
Linda grabbed her friend's wrist to hold him back.  
  
"DON'T YOU DARE CALL MELLO A FAGGOT YOU BITCH!" the red head yelled, tugging at his wrist. "Linda... Let GO."  
  
"No."   
  
Matt let out an angry sigh and stopped fighting.  
  
"We're not ranting, we're standing up for our minority," Resa said calmly. "And yes, we are a minority. A very bullied one at that." She closed her eyes for a moment. "LGBT. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. All a minority, and all receive almost the same treatment as racial minorities a century ago. But why? We've learned to accept the fact that regardless of skin color, we are all human beings and deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So then why are we, those in the LGBT community, treated as if we're different?   
  
Matt said that for the longest Mello was practically idolized at this school. I knew Mello for three years, Linda knew him for eight, Matt for 15. Idolized. Students of all ages coming to him for help. Mello had some of the highest scores in this school, second only to Near. And yet, the second someone sees him kiss a boy, no less his best friend of 15 years, on the cheek, all of that goes away.   
  
This past week has been hell for all of us. For Matt, it was getting bullied for loving Mello and watching his best friend get bullied, not being able to stop it. For Linda and I, it was watching our good friends get picked on and abused for being in love.  
  
You can't even begin to imagine how painful it is to watch it, and not be able to do a damn thing." The brunette sighed. "And so I ask the same thing Matt did.  
  
Why did it change? What changed? Mello was still the same Mello he'd always been.  
  
Rise Against has a song titled 'Make It Stop (September's Children)'. In that song, the lyrics go 'What God would damn a heart? And what God drove us apart?'  
  
I ask you that now. What God would damn one of his children for love? What God would drive his children apart? Think about that."  
  
Matt had closed his eyes halfway through Resa's speech and he remained standing with his head bowed.  
  
"It has to stop. Starting today, it has to stop," he said quietly. "The bullying, everything. It has to stop. Mello took his life because of it. None of you know what he could have been capable of. And now you never will.  
  
And every day, one more child takes their life. Simply because the pain of being who they are is too unbearable anymore. So they end it, with the last little bit of control they have.  
  
Whether you're gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, or straight... If you feel the same as we do, that the bullying has to end, then join us."  
  
"Roger has given us permission to start an LGBT support group here at school," Linda said. "Our first meeting is this afternoon. If you would like to join, just stop by. We'll be in the humanities classroom." In an undertone, she said, "Matt, hun, are you gonna be okay?"  
  
"Y-yeah, I'll be fine."  
  
The brunette nodded. "Okay."  
  
Roger took over and continued by telling the students when the funeral was going to be held and where.  
  
Matt disappeared off the side of the stage.  
  
Resa tugged lightly on her girlfriend's jacket. "Baby, Matt."  
  
Linda nodded. "C'mon."  
  
They found the red head sitting on the steps, sniffling.  
  
The girls sat down beside him causing him to look up. "Oh, hey."  
  
"Matt, that was very brave of you," Resa said quietly.  
  
"It wasn't."  
  
"Why not?" Linda said. "Reasa and I both know you hate speaking to people. To stand there and talk about something you feel so strongly about..."  
  
"No, it wasn't brave. Brave would have been stopping Mello yesterday."  
  
"What?"  
  
"He was acting weird. I knew he'd been cutting. That started the day after it got out that we were together; that was the only thing he ever tried to hide from me. But I just let him go home alone..."  
  
"Matt, he knew you care about him. He wanted you to keep on living."  
  
"But I could have saved him..."  
  
"Hun, he died of blood loss because he cut too deep," Linda said gently. "I don't think it was intentional."  
  
"I still..."  
  
"Matt, listen. You would have freaked out if you saw the amount of blood his mother found. Add to that, the blood loss made him dizzy and he fell and hit his head. Even if you'd been there, you couldn't have done anything."  
  
"I still remember the last thing I told him before he walked into his house."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"I held him close and kissed him and I said 'No matter what happens, I will always love you.' And he just smiled and said 'I was gonna say that. But I love you too."  
  
"Awww!"  
  
"Gah, you and your joint 'awww'," Matt grumbled, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Whatever. It was sweet though."  
  
***  
  
That afternoon, six kids wandered into the humanities room. There were four girls and two boys.  
  
"Near?"  
  
"What? Your speech was quite inspiring, Matt. It persuaded me that something needed to be done. That is why I am here. You did say anyone could join," the pale boy said quietly.  
  
"Yeah, it's just surprising is all."  
  
The boy nodded. "I understand."  
  
"Well, six is a start. I mean, it took a lot of guts for them to make this kind of step," Linda said.  
  
Matt nodded. "Anyway, how about we start with introductions?"  
  
No one made a sound.  
  
Resa sighed. "This is a support group. How on earth are we going to support each other, if we don't know each other?"  
  
There was a bit of murmuring, and finally a little red headed girl with bright blue eyes said, "My name's Jenna. The reason I joined this support group is because one of my best friends, and my girlfriend for about a year, was forced to break up with me on the grounds that it was 'immoral'. Her family even made her feel like shit about it, pardon my language."  
  
Linda nodded. "When did you last talk to her?"  
  
"Almost a month ago."  
  
"That's a shame. Anyone else?"  
  
The other boy, a small mousy thing with auburn hair, said, "I'm Kevin. Jenna's like my sister, so I came for her, myself, and for everyone else."  
  
"I am here simply to support this group," Near said.  
  
"Any bit helps, Near, and we're very grateful," Resa said.  
  
The boy nodded.  
  
The raven haired girl stood up. "I'm Tia and my girlfriend Nala and I are here to support our LGBT brothers and sisters."  
  
The blonde to her left nodded.  
  
The other blonde spoke up. "And I'm Moira, their friend. I'm straight, but I'm tired of seeing Tia and Nala get bullied for being together."  
  
Matt nodded. "The bullying stops today, through our combined efforts."


End file.
